Thank you

Dear Friends, Family, and Partners in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,

Grace and peace to you.

As many of you know, I returned safely to United States a little over a week ago on Wednesday the 17th. Thank you all very much for your prayers as I traveled home. While my flights were all smooth and mostly on time, I did have a small problem at the Port-au-Prince airport which could have turned into a big problem if not for your prayers and the help of God (it seems I stayed quite a bit longer in Haiti than you are allowed on a tourist visa). In the end everything turned out fine, and I arrived in Philadelphia safe and sound. A special thank you to those who helped to coordinate my parents’ surprising me at the airport.

To the glory of God and to the credit of your prayers, the time I spent in Haiti was wonderfully successful both in terms of our ministry and in my own personal life. Here are just a few of the praises from my six months there:

-no illnesses, upset stomachs, or injuries
-I was able to learn Creole and communicate effectively with the Haitians I worked with
-over 40 miles of drinking water pipes where surveyed
-a sand-storage dam and an inverted siphon were designed and plans drawn
-safety and relative stability of the country
-hosted and assisted over 10 different American work teams who helped to build roofs, install gutters, assemble benches, and among many other things
-helped to train Neemy, a Haitian engineer, in surveying
-showed the Jesus Film at five different churches to a total of over 1000 people
-I learned more about God as my best friend and comforter

If you want to read more about what went on with my mission while in Haiti, go to www.callmehaiti.blogspot.com. Thank you to all those who prayed, gave financial support, sent encouraging letters and emails, and helped me to prepare for my transition home.

I would continue to covet your prayers as I begin seminary this fall at Westminster Theological Seminary. I will be in Philadelphia for at least three more years to get training in the Bible, church planting, and to seek what God has next for me to do. Please pray for diligence in my studies, that I could find a good part-time job (preferably in engineering), that I would trust God to provide for me financially, and that I could clearly discern what the next call is that God has for me. I would love to talk more with any of you about what God did in Haiti in my 6 months there or anything else, so please do not hesitate to contact me via email, telephone, or snail mail.

“for ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” Romans 10:14-15

Thank you for sending me. It truly was a blessing.

Yours in Christ,

Ben Gustafson


Good-bye!

My Last Few Days

My time in Haiti was coming to a close, so I made a couple visits to see some friends before I left. unfortunately I'm not very good at taking pictures, so i don't have any of some of the guys I was close with (like my survey crew, duh!). here some pictures I did take though.


Gaston, John Walter, and Maize who was one of the main guys on my survey crew (on the left)



Pastor Bernicks and Me (never mind that I look like a psycho)



Engineer Neemy and myself. Neemy came back from finishing his school projects a week before I left.



Boss Aletude, a good friend



The Abdias Family that I lived with for a couple weeks

Creepy Crawlers

Just had to share some of this excitement with you: a montage of the bugs, spiders, and other things of Haiti


careful where you walk while surveying



this guy lived in my kitchen, but I didn't kill him because he ate the cockroaches (of which i have no pictures unfortunately). the really creepy thing about them is that they jump, pretty far too.



another banana spider which was spared because he eats the roaches. you had to shake out your shoes and pants in the morning though in case they decided to take a nap there overnight



this tarantula i found coming out of the shower. I definitely killed him.



While I was depodding these beans, I had the wonderful experience of finding worms in about half of them. The added bonus was squishing the worms to make them pop. you may have to look really hard to see them.



my buddy, the zondolite, who lived in my kitchen for a while until he got caught in a rat trap. they are very good at eating the bugs on your screens at night. it's fun to watch (remember i had no TV).



mr. zondolite again



not really a creepy crawler, but it sure is a funny picture of a donkey :)

The Mad Surveying American

My last month and a half in Haiti was spent hiking through the Haitian country-side surveying over 40 miles of water pipes. It was tough work in the extreme heat, climbing mountains, working long days, and often running out of water. The Haitian guys that worked with me were amazing. They worked without complaining, put up with my impatience, and learned how to understand my broken creole. Sometimes we would leave the shop yard at 7 am, hike some 10 miles, and then return home around 8 at night. It was a very difficult and physically exhausting time and is why I was not very diligent at keeping this blog updated. I was just plain tired!

In the midst of this difficulty, God was very active. He kept us safe and free from sickness (although I did get stung by a scorpion one day, but i got better). The strength that he gave the team of guys I worked with and especially the strength he gave to this white-skinned weakling was amazing. Every day I found encouragement and comfort in the verse "The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights." It was awesome to reflect on how in-control God was of every circumstance and the ability he gave us to climb the mountains we needed to climb. we also had tons of fun and lots of laughs. Good stories to ask me about: Maiz and cold water, the burning coocnuts, and the slow walkin' Isonell.

Now you may ask "why were they surveying all this pipe?" Well, with the information we collected, we hope to put together a plan of the whole water system. This would allow us to analyze how we can make the system better, how we can bring water to new areas, and what parts of the system have critical issues that need to be fixed. Also, the committees in charge of the system need a records of their system in case something breaks 30 years from now and
everybody who helped installed the system is gone. We have collected all the information to put together the plans, but we are still waiting for the necessary AutoCAD software to finish the work. Please pray that God would supply this very expensive software.


Using the survey "gun" with Fre Leotess in the background.


An unauthorized photo of the crazy surveyor.


Engineer Neemy on the survey gun